More For Prisons Called A Help, Not A Solution

RICHMOND — Gov. Gerald L. Baliles' proposed two-year, $77 million prison building program will provide some relief to local jails, where overcrowding and inmates sleeping on the floor is a daily fact.

But with the number of inmates in state prisons and local jails expected to double in the next five years, the 2,275 new beds proposed won't solve the whole problem.

"I don't think that anybody believes we can build our way out of this problem," said Newport News Sheriff Clay Hester, a member of a study commission on which Baliles is basing his proposals.

"The political rhetoric about the war on drugs and guns is very cheap," said Alexandria Sheriff James Dunning, another commission member. "The answers are going to be complicated and expensive."

"There are going to be more people all over the place, and it's going to cost more money to take care of it," said P. Michael Leininger, legislative liaison for the Department of Corrections.

Besides new prisons, Baliles is expected to introduce legislation that will reduce the number of inmates the state is responsible for taking out of local jails but will also guarantee that those prisoners are taken into the state system within 60 days.

Localities are holding some state prisoners for months while the state tries to find room for them.

Currently, the state is responsible for prisoners sentenced to more than six months for felony convictions, although in practice, the director of the Department of Corrections has discretion over which prisoners are taken into the state system. Baliles' proposal, modeled on a study from the 1989 Commission on Prison and Jail Overcrowding, would raise that limit to felons who are serving two years or more.

The commission also recommended the General Assembly allow localities with populations of 100,000 or more to receive matching money from the state for jail construction. Only regional jails can receive state money now. It is not known whether Baliles will endorse this recommendation.

His budget does recommend spending $10 million on such items as increased use of electronic equipment that allows prisoners to be monitored when they are confined in their homes, and a beefed-up parole system that will allow more inmates to be released by providing more supervision.

The Department of Corrections was holding an average of 14,374 inmates daily in December, said Tracy Jenkins, a researcher with the department.

Local jails had about 11,284. Of those, 1,909 were waiting for a place in a state prison. The state's goal is to reduce the waiting list to 300, although at the same time the new definition of which prisoners the state is responsible for will mean more prisoners will be assigned permanently to local jails.

Meanwhile, jails from Alexandria to Suffolk are feeling the effects of the backlog.

Susan McCampbell, assistant sheriff in Alexandria, said its jail usually houses 550 to 600 inmates in a jail designed to hold 333.

Hampton's jail has 252 immates in a 122-inmate facility, said Maj. Charles E. Michael. Officials in both cities said they would be in much worse shape if they couldn't send prisoners to the 120-inmate Newport News City Farm.

The Suffolk jail, designed to hold 82 prisoners, has 193, said Capt. Landi Faulk. some waiting up to five months to be transfered to state prison.

Some of the 315 inmates in Newport News jail, which is designed to hold 198, are sleeping on the floor, said Maj. Charles E. Moore.

He said the state's proposal will help but added, "Even if the state took all the prisoners out of here that's ready to go, we would still be crowded."